Performing Network Penetration Testing

As an aspiring ethical hacker and penetration tester, being thrown into the field of cybersecurity to perform your first penetration test on an organization’s network can be very overwhelming! I remember the first time as a security professional when I was given the responsibility of performing an internal network penetration test on an organization to identify security vulnerabilities and provide recommendations on how to mitigate threats and resolve security weaknesses in systems. It was definitely a unique experience in that I knew what to do based on my knowledge, training, and skills. However, there was a feeling of uncertainty about how to get started. Nevertheless, I followed the rules and procedures that had been set within my cybersecurity training and education and developed additional strategies and tactics to achieve the goal of penetration testing, while staying within the legal boundaries and the scope of testing that were...